CES 2019: IBM Has Unveiled World’s First Commercial Quantum Computer

While quantum computing is still in its infancy and is primarily just a part of books and research papers, IBM at CES 2019 unveiled the Q System One that is touted to be the world’s first quantum computer for industrial use. The brand-new maker does not appear like a mainframe computer system. Instead, it comes in a futuristic, nine-foot-tall and nine-foot wide case of half-inch thick borosilicate glass that reminds us of the round design of the 2013 Mac Pro. The Armonk, New York-headquartered company has actually likewise revealed its plans to open the very first IBM Q Quantum Computation Center in Poughkeepsie later this year to supercharge its quantum computing business. Significantly, the IBM Q System One won’t be offered openly to the masses. The business is, nevertheless, set to give access to the quantum computing system to organisations partnering under the IBM Q Network.

The IBM Q System One is formally referred to as the “world’s first incorporated universal approximate quantum computing system developed for clinical and industrial use”. The maker has actually been designed by a group of commercial designers, designers, and producers along with IBM Research scientists and system engineers. The developing work of the maker was likewise accomplished by UK industrial and interior design studios Map Project Office and Milan-based museum display case producer Goppion, and Universal Design Studio. Significantly, Google back in 2017 was stated to have actually given early access to its quantum devices to science laboratories and artificial intelligence scientists.

Quantum computing is all about quantum bits, or qubits, and for processing every qubit, the machine requires an undistracted environment. IBM has, therefore, combined all the components of the Q System One into a glass-enclosed, air-tight environment. The business also highlights that the integrated system is aimed to continually keep the quality of qubits utilized to assist users efficiently perform quantum calculations.

The IBM Q System One utilizes a motor-driven rotation around its 2 displaced axes to reduce its maintenance and upgrade procedure. This makes the system appropriate for industrial usage cases, IBM said. There is likewise a series of independent aluminium and steel frames to help prevent any potential vibration disturbance that could result in “phase jitter” and qubit decoherence.

IBM isn’t intending to bring the Q System One to the masses. Nevertheless, there is a plan to offer partners to the IBM Q Network programmed cloud-based access to its quantum computing operations. This sounds like the Big Blue is aiming to bring a Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) model for its quantum computers in the future.

Actual use cases of quantum computing are yet to emerge, though IBM tasks that there could be applications such as “finding brand-new ways to design financial information and discovering new methods to design financial information and separating essential worldwide risk elements to make much better financial investments, or discovering the ideal path throughout international systems for ultra-efficient logistics and optimizing fleet operations for deliveries”. All these are likely to be the locations where the IBM Q System One will be sufficient enough. Likewise, the system is declared to have a variety of customized parts that might open the avenue for modular quantum computers in the future.

” The IBM Q System One is a significant advance in the commercialization of quantum computing,” said Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President of Hybrid Cloud and Director of IBM Research, in a press declaration. “This brand-new system is important in broadening quantum computing beyond the walls of the research study lab as we work to develop useful quantum applications for organisation and science.”

IBM has a tradition of bringing enterprise-focused computing services. However quantum computing is something that could sit together with the company’s cloud and expert system (AI) advancements to provide it an edge versus the competition. Having said that, it is still really early to anticipate the success of the IBM Q System One.

A reproduction of the IBM Q System One is being showcased at CES 2019 in Las Vegas. Furthermore, Argonne National Laboratory, CERN, ExxonMobil, Fermilab, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are amongst the recent partners for the IBM Q Network program.